almost ready to give upboth

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william dieffenbach

Member
I have been in rc for a very long time, and have flown all kinds of model planes.
About a month ago I decided to try my luck with a quad copter. I bought a 450 size with a naza-m lite controller. I am using a hitec 9x transmitter and a 9 channel receiver. The assembly was the easy part, but the real fun started when I tried to set it up with the naza lite assistant. After a full month of trying, I still have never even got the motors to turn on. In the beginning I could not see the gps on the u bar, but eventually I managed to get the gps , atti, and manual to show up by using the trims and end point settings. I also managed to get a three way switch assigned to move the mode selection on the u bar. At one point I successfully managed to do the naza dance and set the compass. But now I have regressed for some reason and can not get the compass set again.

I got tired of trying and bought a cc3d unit and installed it in a 250 size quad, thinking it may be easier to set up. Not so much! I built this one with a tactic 6 channel receiver and transmitter. I have used open pilot to set up the controller with no problem , but when in the transmitter set up , after doing the rotation of the sticks, the picture does not move with my stick movement , there is just a small amount of movement that is not steady in a direction at all.
I sure would like to get one of these two flying in the near future, but I may not be up to the challenge.
I also have studied many videos on utube , for both quads. It has been a help but just not enough to get me in the air. I also don't know how much longer I have to get them going, as I am fast approaching 80.
Thanks for listening, Bill
 

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cootertwo

Member
Bill, I feel your pain! 66 here, and feel like 80! I've been at this for awhile, and still manage to burn things up on occasion! Naza Lite is one of the easiest flight controllers to setup, in my opinion. However, they all require everything to be just right, or as you know, no go. Try viewing some of Painless360's videos on you tube. Dennis Baldwin has some good ones too.
I found a pretty steep learning curve, (at least for me) until after hours and hours of reading, it sorta began to come together. My biggest problem is that I've tried so many different flight controllers, I get everything mixed up. Lack of memory space in my old head. When I find a video that kinda makes sense to me, I'll watch it a few times, then again, as I try to do the steps, one at a time, with the video. I've been so pissed at times, I wanted to smash everything to bits. However, that feeling you get when you finally figure things out, is pretty nice. Sometimes I have to walk away for a day or two, to avoid the smashing thing. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, with an idea for a solution to a problem I'm having, and I'll get up, and hook things up and try it. Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress, and problems. It's a bit hard to diagnose problems over the internet, but I feel you'll get it, sooner or later. This is a great forum, and lot's of nice people. NO stupid questions, no bashing. We all started out at sometime, just like you.
 

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FLJim

Member
Hi Bill and welcome to the forums! Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. I'm wondering if you can post up some pictures of how you have your flight controllers and everything wired up. I just recently put together a 250 with a CC3D and after figuring our what everything was for it went together pretty quick. Perhaps you just have something in the wiring confused and we can help get you flying!
 


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william dieffenbach

Member
sledge57 said:
Yep don't give up, someone here will steer you right and have both flying, I'm sure of it........
Click to expand...
Thanks guys,
I tried cc3d , then a 450 with naza lite and gps, Could not get the motors to arm. I tried plugging them directly into the receiver and they work. Tried setting up fail safe by watching a utube video and went step by step doing the switch setup, still no motors. Bought a kk2 , pulled all the naza light stuff from the 450 quad, installed the kk2 .did a factory reset, reciever test came out good. Plugged the esc directly into the receiver and the motor came on. The escs are constantly sounding out a tune that is bleep bleep bleeep bleep.
For some reason the motors still will not arm, just like when I had the naza lite installed. If I had some hair , I probably would have pulled it all out.
 

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cootertwo

Member
Just guessing, but maybe the ESC's need calibrating. According to what you've posted so far, that is one thing you have not done yet, and will prevent arming. Also I'd go back to the Naza Lite, and start from scratch.
 

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william dieffenbach

Member
cootertwo,
This morning after looking at another utube , I programed #1 motor esc by plugging it into the throttle position on the receiver, bypassing the kk2.
After doing that the motor started and worked fine. Then I tried the same thing with the remaining escs , but none of those motors would turn on. Then I tried #1 motor going thru the kk2, it still would not turn on.
Bill
 

jbrumberg

jbrumberg

Member
Bill- I suspect that your ESC's are still not calibrated. With all the bleeping beeping going on it took me several attempts to calibrate my old KK2.0 board before they actually calibrated. I used the clothespin calibration technique using clothespins on Buttons #1 and #4 prior to powering up the board in the ESC calibration procedure through the board. Using the clothes pins guarantees that both buttons will be pressed simultaneously during the calibration process.

Can you show a picture of your wiring setup?

Good luck-

Jay
 

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tstrike

pendejo grande
If you're using the same esc's that were used with the naza, they won't work on the KK board. Naza uses opto esc's and the KK board needs 5v fed to it from a BEC esc.

Opto's only send signal, BEC's drops your battery voltage down to usually 5v and send power to the fc. Naza goes this route because power is being supplied by the pmu (led unit).

Either change out your esc's and use the kk board or keep the ones you have and figure out the naza.
 

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william dieffenbach

Member
I am using hobbyfans 30a 40escs . What I don't understand is why the number 1 motor starts after calibration , but none of the other three will not. Also in the kk2 manual it mentions something about a red wire on the other three escs may have to be removed , except in the case of a quadcopter. it seems like channels 2 ,3 &4 are not getting power through the kk2.
Thinking about running jumpers from #1 esc to # 2 motor. If im not mistaken my escs are linear , don't know if that makes a difference.
What escs should I buy for the kk2 to work?
Bill
 

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tstrike

pendejo grande
Hi Bill, maybe try plugging in the motor to the number 2 motor pins and see if that powers the other motors.
My kk board has motor 1 with all 3 (red, black, white wires)-this powers my receiver, then motor 2 has all 3 wires again-this powers the rest of the bus bar.
Maybe you weren't using opto's when you were running the naza?
 

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cootertwo

Member
Poor Bill, you're having a heck of a time. I admire your patience and persistence. I would have piled all that stuff up, and beat it into dust with a big hammer by now! Just kidding. But I did do that to 3 cell phones recently! Those cell phone lipos go off nice!
Back to your deli-ma, grab a cup of joe, and watch these 2 videos, if you have not yet. They are for the Naza Lite, step by step. However, you have some different parts, but it might help. Did you get your Naza Lite as a kit, with all the accessories? Meaning the DJI BEC, GPS, and associated wires.


 

jbrumberg

jbrumberg

Member
One needs a BEC esc to power the KK board through channel 1. The KK board is powered through channel 1. If the other channels are not powered it appears the ESC connected to channel 1 is not a BEC esc. I had a KK2.0 version 1.6 and I had BEC esc's connected to all channels without problems. I had to disconnect the power wire from my ESC's when I upgraded to a NAZA M-Lite with GPS.
 

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tstrike

pendejo grande
Also make sure you're set to quad of some type in the kk menu and not fixed wing. In fixed wing it only supplies power to the first set of pins to avoid shorting out in a crash with the unused pins "live" exposed.
 

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william dieffenbach

Member
I hate for something to get the best of me, but this quad stuff is all new and there seems to be a lot of variables. I ordered my naza m lite and the 450 quad from ebay. It came with the wires, the escs, the motors a separate 5 volt power supply, and led. Im thinking both the lite and the kk2 have the same problems, possibly the escs or the esc red wire stuff. For the kk2 is the red wire needed for motor 1 and 2, and not 3 and 4? For the naza lite should the red wires be cut for motors 2,3, and 4? I got to the place on the lite where I had a switch that would select gps, failsafe and manual. But could not get the second switch to work the failsafe when the tx was turned off. And I could not get any motor to arm. I will not give up until I get these quads working, I thought the kk2 would be a lot easier then the lite, but guess I was wrong.
I will just keep watching you tube and googling, maybe I will get there eventually.
Bill
 

jbrumberg

jbrumberg

Member
Bill-

I hope that you find this link helpful: http://rumblecloud.com/rumblecloudrc/index.php?topic=559.msg4948#msg4948

It seems that the different 9X transmitters all need slight modifications to those end point settings based on feedback that I have recieved and posts that I have read.

It took me awhile to get my Flysky TH9X(B) working correctly with my NAZA M-lite with GPS.

As for the KK board I used all BEC esc's and never removed the hot wire from any of them. I had to remove all the hot wires from the servo lead connectors when I swapped my KK for my NAZA.

Good luck-

Jay
 

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william dieffenbach

Member
Jay and Friends,
I just made up jumpers so I could connect the outputs of # 1 motor esc to the input of #2 motor , leaving all the escs plugged into the kk2 as they were.
Now motors 2 , 3, and 4 all came on. There is one thing, they came on at different throttle settings. Can someone explain this to me ?
Also I found out these hobbyfan escs are all linear, and according to a utube video linear escs don't need the red wire removed on a quadcopter. Now ,if I can only figure out how to get all four motors running, and have them start up together.
Feeling a little better, Bill
 

jbrumberg

jbrumberg

Member
Bill-

It reads like you are getting closer to getting airborne.

I have not played with the KK2 in a long time. I still believe that you need to calibrate your esc's. As I posted previously the "clothespin method" through the KK board worked best for me.
 


jbrumberg

jbrumberg

Member
Bill-

BTW the KK2.0 board is actually powered through the M1 connection. I checked this before I posted.

Good luck.

Jay
 
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